SWTOR: Confessions of an altaholic

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Just for background info: SW:TOR has been my game of choice (again) lately. I played for a few months right around the launch time, but lost interest as I burned out on alts (my fault) and the guild I was part of exploded in nasty ways. I wasn’t there for the “Free to Play” choice, and I don’t play “free” now either. I play on The Ebon Hawk server and I consider myself primarily a roleplayer, although I have enjoyed PvE and PvP content in the game as well. My main characters this go around have been on the Imperial side.

What I wanted to talk about here is how I approach alternate characters. I consider SWTOR to be an alt friendly game (to an extent). The main storylines are interesting and playing through at least all 8 of the main stories can be fun. Considering advanced classes (16) and that you could choose both male/female and light/dark side potentially you could play 64 times, although you get less and less variety with each choice. Advanced classes don’t matter to the stories, just to the playing style. Male/Female change romantic options, but not anything major about the main storyline. And playing Light or Dark makes some dialog choices different, but the end results of the story missions are largely the same.

The Problem

The main problem with playing multiple characters in SWTOR is that it can be a bit repetitive. Although the main story missions change, those don’t make up the bulk of what you do on each planet. Most of your missions on a planet will be so-called “side missions”. So if you play a Bounty Hunter and go to Balmorra, then play a Sith Warrior, you’ll also go to Balmorra, and 90% of the content there will the exact same as the last time you ran through that world. Maybe that is ok for 2 characters, but get to 4 (or more) and you’ll start to be like the vets who whine “Oh, I can’t WAIT to get OFF of this planet!”

My Solutions

I have a couple of ways that I approach this “burnout” issue. The point of this blog article is to describe what I do. Hopefully 1 or more of them may resonate with you and help you enjoy your journey in the “Galaxy Far Far Away” more.

Focus First

First let me encourage you to focus on getting one character all the way through the game (at least through the main storyline if not all the way through to level 55). You are going to help yourself SO much if you do this. By focusing on one character, then the next time you have to go back and do missions on Dromund Kaas or Coruscant you won’t feel as much like “Wasn’t I just here?”

Playing for Both Teams

Second let me encourage you to experience the quests and playing experience from both sides of the galactic conflict. By alternating characters between Imperial and Republic factions, you’ll cut WAY back on how much you feel like you’re repeating things. I started my original run at SWTOR thinking I was going to play all 8 Republic Advanced Classes. Big mistake. This was a major part of my burnout. It also didn’t let me see the awesome stories on the “Evil Empire” side of the game either. You may feel drawn to one side or the other, but trust me that an altaholic like me will be well served by swapping back and forth.

Just keep in mind that in some cases, the character classes aren’t THAT different in playing style. A Sith Warrior plays very much like a Jedi Knight. There are differences, and the true masters at the classes can point those out. But in many cases the Republic and Imperial classes mirror each other. So if you want to maximize your differences, don’t follow leveling your Sith Juggernaut with a Jedi Guardian. On the other hand, if you wanted to experience the story without needing to relearn how to play, using the mirrored classes would work to your advantage.

Mapping the Journey

The primary way that I’ve found to avoid burnout is by mapping which planets each of my characters will focus on. For instance, I might say “This character is going to do everything they can on Coruscant, but I’m going to blitz through Balmorra.” There are some exceptions that I make for this. For instance, I really enjoy the Imperial missions on Taris, but I can’t stand Tatooine. So I tend to make Taris a “must see” and always tend to blitz Tatooine. Don’t even get me started on Belsavis. Too big, too many walls/chokepoints, too many tunnels, not enough fast travel locations.

Space Mission Grinding

One way that the above planet mapping works for me is by using the Space Missions (not talking about Galactic Starfighter, but the old style “space combat on rails” missions). I like to use those to gain additional XP so that I can overlevel the planets that I want to skip through. I’m not someone who needs every encounter in the game to be challenging to the point of frustration. So by ensuring that I’m about 2-3 levels above the minimum recommendation for each planet I give myself more flexibility as to which missions I want to complete.

Growing Through PvP

I wanted to put out a quick “shout out” to the option of using PvP as an alternative leveling mechanism. It is (theoretically) possible to level to 55 doing nothing but PvP activities. It will be a LONG grind, but it is possible. As an alternative, you could use the PvP system in place of what I said above about Space Mission Grinding. Gaining a few levels via PvP would also help break up some of the monotony of the planet side missions. Although depending on your playing style/preferences, it could be a case of replacing one grind with another. 🙂

Kuat Drive Yards (KDY)

If all you are really interested in is playing a different style of play, and don’t care as much about the story missions, then the Kuat Drive Yards (KDY) may be a good choice for you. You have to first reach level 15 on your own, however once you do that, you can join the flashpoint. In KDY, you are automatically bolstered to level 55 / rating 186 gear as far as your stats go. You’ll still only have access to level appropriate skills and skill tree of course. KDY is often used in conjunction with double XP weekends / weeks to quickly level alts to the level cap. You can then go back and do the story missions on each planet to advance the story, get your full complement of companions.

I have done a few KDY runs, but on the whole I would only recommend them for people who are leveling an alt where they don’t care about the character’s story. Veterans with several level 55 characters find KDY to be a nice alternative to re-running plantside missions that they’ve already done dozens of times.

Summary

SWTOR can feed the cravings of an altaholic. However, without careful thought and planning, it is easy to get burned out on the leveling grind and become bored with the game. I hope the above tips and ideas I’ve provided help some of you as you plan out your Star Wars journey. Please feel free to comment / ask questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.